I am a Professor of Economics at Texas Christian University, where I have worked since 1987. My areas of specialty are international economics (particularly exchange rates), macroeconomics, history of economics, and contemporary schools of thought. During my time in Fort Worth, I have served as department chair, Executive Director of the International Confederation of Associations for Pluralism in Economics, a member of the board of directors of the Association for Evolutionary Economics, and a member of the editorial boards of the American Review of Political Economy, the Critique of Political Economy, the Encyclopedia of Political Economy, the Journal of Economics Issues, and the Social Science Journal. My research consists of over thirty refereed publications, two edited volumes, and one book (with another in process). I have also been lucky enough to win a couple of teaching awards.
In terms of my approach to this blog, I am a firm believer that economics can and must be made understandable to the general public, but that our discipline has done a very poor job in this regard. This is particularly true of macro issues, where people quite naturally assume that their personal experiences are analogous to those at the national scale. Very often, this is not the case, with the result that politicians and voters (and some economists) press for policies whose effects are quite the opposite of what was intended. That this is problematic has never been more evident than today. I also try to steer as clear of politics as possible. I want to explain how things work, not what you should believe.
I have been married to my wife, Melanie, for over twenty-five years, and we have twin daughters (who have just started college) and a dog named Rommel (who has not). My favorite pastimes are online computer gaming and reading about WWII history.

The Terrifying Texas GOP Platform

I named this blog Pragmatic Economics in part because of my desire to avoid politics. That’s why my tag line is, “I want to explain how things work, not what you should believe.” However, I am so distressed by the 2012 platform released by the Texas Republican Party that I find it impossible not to comment. While I am hardly in agreement with everything forwarded by the Democrats (and have taken aim at President Obama on a number of occasions, especially with respect to his desire to balance the federal budget), it is difficult to believe that what the Republicans put together during their convention in Fort Worth was even written in the 21st century. It is anything but pragmatic.

The document (available here) has already made headlines with the portion that opposes the “teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills” and “critical thinking skills.” Although a partial retraction followed, this was in terms of the wording, not the general meaning. It appears that their fear is that these “focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.” Think about that for a moment. First off, do they really and truly believe that teachers and school boards across the State of Texas are designing curricula specifically aimed at training children to challenge their parents? Second, do you know which values and concepts are rejected in the absence of higher order and critical thinking? None! Therefore, depending on the time and place when we decide to stop challenging ideas and meekly accept what we are told, we might thereafter and forever be racists, sexists, communists, fascists, democrats, capitalists, Christians, Buddhists, Lutherans, geocentrists, pacifists, Wiccans, or whatever the prevailing views of that day were. Nothing would ever again be questioned. Were we to implement such a policy, we’d have to be certain that we had already identified the concepts and values that were “correct” (whatever that really means). Even a cursory reading of their platform makes it very clear that this is precisely what Texas Republicans believe and what those concepts and values are. This begs the question, who is really aiming to force their beliefs on our children, Texas schools or Texas Republicans? Personally, I prefer what I learned during my twelve years of Catholic school and eight years of public higher education: if a belief cannot stand up to scrutiny, then we shouldn’t believe it; and if it does, we will hold it all the more strongly for the very reason that it withstood our challenge.

Another disturbing feature of the document is that while they “urge the Legislature to direct expenditures to academics as the first priority,” they also contend that “Since data is (sic) clear that additional money does not translate into educational achievement, and higher education costs are out of control, we support reducing taxpayer funding to all levels of education institutions” (emphasis added). Not only is the second statement inconsistent with the first (not to mention rather frightening), it isn’t true. The implications of the data are far from clear. In point of fact, economists have found that–not surprisingly–it matters how the money is spent (see here for a survey of the relevant literature). For example, reducing class sizes and adding remedial help appear to be particularly cost effective. Thus, contrary to the Texas GOP’s assertion, there are programs that both add to costs AND increase educational achievement. Furthermore, the most significant finding in the literature over the years has been that teacher quality is the absolute, number one factor driving student attainment. Surely the Texas GOP is not arguing that higher salaries would not tend to attract higher quality teachers or that funds for training and apprenticeship would not be well spent? The bottom line is, the actual evidence flies in the face of their claim that the research shows unequivocally that there is no connection between funding and outcomes. It simply isn’t true. A cynic might be tempted to conclude that the real goal of the Texas Republican Party is simply to find a means of circumventing Article VII of the Texas Constitution, requiring the State to “establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools” (wherein, according to the Texas Supreme Court in Edgewood ISD vs. Kirby, efficient is not equivalent to “economical,” “inexpensive,” or “cheap”). I hope that’s not the case.

The economic policies recommended by the document are equally impractical and ill-considered. Bearing in mind that the fundamental problem faced in an advanced capitalist economy is insufficient demand to generate employment for all those willing to work (see Why Do Recessions Happen?), the following recommendations would operate to make this problem even worse:

• We urge state and federal legislators to reduce spending.

• We urge Congress to adopt balanced budgets by cutting spending and not increasing tax rates.

• We recommend repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, with the goal of abolishing the I.R.S and replacing it with a national sales tax collected by the States. In the interim we urge the income tax be changed to a flatter, broader, lower tax with only minimal exemptions such as home mortgage interest deductions.

The first two would directly reduce the demand for goods and services, thus causing contraction and unemployment, while the last three would create a much more regressive tax system that shifted the burden onto the sector of the economy that would otherwise generate the highest level of demand per dollar of income: the poor and middle class (the top 20% of Americans spend 62% of their income, as compared to 87% for the rest). In other words, those who don’t spend would be left with relatively more after-tax income than those who do, creating yet another drag on the economy. Note, too, that the second point above (regarding balanced budgets) is based on a false premise, i.e., that the federal government is budget constrained (see The Big Danger in Cutting the Deficit). One of the least understood economic facts today is that it isn’t, the reason being that the entire debt is owed in something we and only we are permitted to print: US dollars. Nor is this inflationary except when the economy is near full employment–-at which point there is no need for the government to continue deficit spending (see Money Growth Does Not Cause Inflation).

The Texas Republican Party Platform also argues that, in contradiction to my last blog post (The Real Job Creators: Consumers), lower business taxes and deregulation will solve our jobs problem. This is false. What we really need is increased demand, which comes via consumers. In addition, they believe that the Federal Reserve system should be abolished and that the US should return to the gold standard:

Our founding fathers warned us of the dangers of allowing central bankers to control our currency because inflation equals taxation without representation. We support the return to the time tested precious metal standard for the U.S. dollar.

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I imagine a cross between Blade Runner and Oliver Twist coming in the days ahead. The thing is, the foot soldiers of this nightmare have no real conception of the world they’re helping to create; considering what side of the electrified fence they’re destined to occupy why would they help the process along? They are being led by the nose by bought-and-paid-for politicians, right-wing media whores, and internet wackos, chasing after a dream of the Good Old Days where Men were Men, Women were obedient, and gays were invisible. They’re the Useful Idiots that are used as force-multipliers needed to help a decidedly non-populist agenda look like a populist movement.

Welcome to Somalia, USA! Must be something in the water. Perry shuts down Planned Parenthood, so there’s no low-cost health-care for women (and men!), refuses federal funds for it, and gives lip service to some imaginary substitute. All in the service of ideology against abortion. Although there were no abortion services available in the first place.

Texas provides schoolbooks for the entire country, and was revising history to take slavery out of the Civil War, as well as some Stalinist revisions to the Revolutionary War, and the deist inclinations of our Founding Fathers. Objections from OTHER states who would be using these textbooks quashed the revisions.

They want to keep people stupid, and want them to die as soon as possible. Seems obvious to me. Perry won’t even use state funds to fight wildfires, but spends a mill on refurbishing the governor’s mansion. Sounds like an African banana republic to me!

I saw this when Rick Santorum was running – the same contempt for an education that might make one reflect upon the decisions of one’s rulers. Although he benefited from graduate education himself. What has happened, when peoiple want their own children to be obedient, rather than educated? To make sure they pursue a lower standard of living? Totally nuts!

Saw Bill Nye (the science guy) on TV this week. Apparently a YouTube post he made months ago, criticising the use of federal funds to teach creationism, created a “controversy” – according to CNN, who could not bring themselves to say that his views were correct. What kind of future do we have as a nation with these superstitious and backwards attitudes? Not the country that put the first man on the moon!

It is not unreasonable to think that the purpose of the GOP agenda is to do exactly what you surmise. The Tea Party driven GOP agenda is virulently anti-government and is driving us to a world in which public assets are sold to private interests who then charge rents for their use. This will be the outcome of state government austerity (driven by an inadequate federal response to the depression). In Washington, where I live, the State Park system has been set loose to self-finance through user fees and is not succeeding, so the public park lands will eventually be closed and then auctioned off to private interests and the public will lose access to the little remaining non-private shoreline. Similarly, only the well-off will be able to educate their children. We are indeed moving back to a feudal society, as Mr. Green, the previous commenter, described. The irony is that the wealthy interests have co-opted the less-well off to carry out their agenda under the ruse of personal freedom from gummint intrusion. Hence all the blather about religious freedom, gun rights, gold standards, tax freedom (economically inconsistent planks, as you point out); a catch-all for a broad range of anti-government feelings, so that there is something to appeal to each freedom-loving tribe.

“Were its recommendations implemented, the US would resemble a third-world country with a cheap, uneducated workforce and a massive gap between rich and poor”.

Which is precisely what they have in mind. You have identified their strategy, Mr. Harvey. The Republicans are quite good at manipulating low-information voters with frightening tales of anti-god, anti-gun, pro-Gay “Libruls”and their various, (and nefarious), plans. Using these tactics, they have become masters at manipulating a sizable portion of the electorate to consistently vote against their own self-interests.

Another reader compared the likely outcome of these lunatic Republican platforms to Brazil. Given the tinge of theocracy that now accompanies Republican ideology, I suspect the United States would look more like Iran or Somalia.

A few hightlights: Right after stating a “mindfulness” to human rights for prisoners: “No extraordinary medical care, including organ transplants or body part replacement, should be performed on prisoners at taxpayer expense.”

Good thing that they oppose funding for the *defunct* organization ACORN!

“We support the freedom to continue to use and manufacture incandescent light bulbs.”

They oppose a minor from getting ANY health care without consent and want to eliminate the “judicial bypass” that allows a judge to grant consent when a minor needs health services and her parents finding out could be dangerous.

They oppose “all transportation corridors” but SUPPORT Keystone XL.

“Minimum Wage – We believe the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed.”

Is this some sort of hoax or parody of the GOP? These are the most reactive, frightening and backwards ideas… According to the Texas GOP, it seems that Reagan, Bush 41, Ford and Nixon were downright socialists!

This is no hoax. This is what happens when one party dominates for nearly 20 years. The more radical the politician, the more popular they are. They have taken a once proud and great state to the verge of being no more than a third world state. It is truly a sad thing, and there is no relief in sight.

“Texan, but not proud”, The Republican party has dominated in Texas for 20 years because we are a state of CONSERVATIVES and the Republican party has the most conservative values. Texas is still a great state. Despite the laughable policies of the federal government over the past three and a half years, Texas is still doing quite well, better than most even. Far from being “third world” as you claim. What I don’t understand is why you impose such a meloncholy lifestyle on yourself? Texas is part of the United States of America, which, for the time being at least, is still free. Wouldn’t you be much happier living in California or Massachusets among the big brains of the liberal left where lunacy is not only accepted, but promoted with vigor?